I agree with your line of thinking. There are two things that make this election crucial. The SCOTUS is paramount. I like most of the potential picks trump has announced. Most fall closer to the constitutional conservative side. Hilary will appoint very liberal justice that fit her world view. A few things we know about Hilary from the leaked emails/ wallstreet transcripts is that she wants open trade and borders, also she plans on using executive order to enact gun control measures. This may be fine with many, but what it tells us is the type of things she will look for when appointing justices. I don't think the constitution should be interepreted as a living breathing document. Though I wouldn't say it is set in stone.
Second the gop already has rumors going about setting up a super delegate system much like the democrats. You see where that got the favored democratIc candidate. This can never happen again for the political class IMO. Yt has put forth many new censorship rules for people's broadcast channels. Including knighting impromptu mods, demonetizing channels with politically sensitive material, and a few other rules. One of my favorite channels, Chinauncensored, is getting many of their videos demonetized. And that is a shame, but you see where the influence is coming from.
Twitter, fb, and all major social media outlets are falling in line. Obama hands over our DNS servers to the UN. Hilary has a cartoon frog labeled as racist by her buddy at the ADL because she can't handle being satirically mocked.
Trust me Jess you live in the nanny state now, which I can only assume has very controlled media. This is our last civil chance at an outside candidate. How many more bombastic billionaires are out there, with a message you approve of verbatim?
Well, ill grant you the importance of the SCOTUS spots. In fact that might he the only thing that concerns me enough about Hillary Clinton that doesn't concern me about Trump for me to consider in a million years to possibly consider voting for him. So I'm with you here, in that I agree it's a big concern we share for similar reasons. The only question to me is if I feel it's enough of a motivation to vote for someone I think is an even worse choice for president than Clinton is.
I know you said you don't think the constitution should be considered a living document, but I'm not sure if you mean that the way you think. A lot of people argue the 2nd amendment shouldn't be considered valid for firearm designs created since the early days of our nation. And I think we both disagree with that argument. The internet didn't exist back then either, but the first amendment absolutely should apply to internet speech and internet protests and internet religious freedom. Way I see it it's the same thing. The constitution IS a living evolving thing and was always supposed to be. That need not be a bad thing in terms of the interests of either of our political stances. Executive orders are not, despite what some presidents think, the right of a president to write and pass their own law. She can't do much damage to the second amendment via executive orders, Obama already tried, and he kept it within the bounds of lawful use of his power (unlike so many other examples in his administration). It simply wouldn't hold up.
The real danger to the 2nd amendment is, as you said, those SCOTUS appointments. The president doesn't have the power, in theory at least, to do anything. Congress isn't supposed to have a whole lot of power in this respect either. But ultimately the policing of that power falls to the supreme court. Control the supreme court, and the road is clear to do anything you want. Which is why I said it's the only thing that would ever make me consider voting for trump, and it would purely be a strategic vote and nothing to do with wanting him for president, even over Clinton.
I'm not inherently opposed to free trade. I wouldn't say I unreservedly support it, but I lean closer to support than oppose.
I feel similarly to border control, sure I don't want totally open anarchistic open borders, but I'm also not opposed to immigration and think a certain level of immigration is part of what's so great about this country.
As for republican super delegates. I'm pretty depressed about the whole situation, on the one hand look at what it resulted for the democratic ticket, on the other hand look at what the existing system resulted in for the republican ticket. Both ways have resulted in horrible candidates IMO. I'm not sure what to do there really.
As for YouTube and the social networking world. Companies can set up whatever censorship they want. I don't like it either, but that's a freedom they have the right to. I think it's BS too but I don't think the election is a particularly ideal way to fight it. There are many ways to influence companies, one way is for us the public to demand they stop their censorship or we'll support an alternative system that doesn't censor us.
I don't know if you read my post on the subject of giving up control over the top level dns registry in the thread dedicated to that subject, but I don't see a problem. In practice it's not a power that can be practically misused or the power can be taken back. Anyone attempting to misuse it could fracture internet name resolution between different authorities and would be a disasterous look for whomever were responsible. Which in turn would make our time in control of it look great, and we need all the positive international sentiment amongst our allies as we can get. In practice it will result in no chance whatsoever except that we get to look like the good guys in the world, giving up power (even if secretly in practice we give up virtually nothing) when no government almost ever does that. And we don't have to pay the bill. I don't see that it's a big deal. And I think that's why the administration is doing it in the first place.
Governments do not give away anything worth keeping. Not ours, not anyones.
You made a good point about scotus, the best point I've heard that is in line with my political beliefs that is in line with voting trump. I don't have any particular argument countering it or shooting down your concern, I agree. And it does leave me feeling conflicted. In other news two more women have come out accusing trump of sexual misconduct. This election truly sucks. I can't support a man like trump to be president,I can't condone it and I think it would be disasterous if he got in and wound up impeached or something. So many Americans already feel betrayed, let down, and questioning what has become of this country. Clintons no good either but at least noones accusing her of common sexual abuse. Something so disgusting and deplorable. And potentially something we knew about before electing him president.
It feels to me like an irreconcilable conflict. Can't vote for trump, can't vote for Clinton. And with that I for one am right back where I started in this election, feeling defeated and that either result will be a dark day for our country.
Trump may be an outsider, but that doesn't make him better than the corrupt political elite, plenty of outsiders would be worse. Voting for anything except more of the same has its limits.
I understand where you're coming from. I don't agree with a lot of things you believe, but politically we have a lot more in common than most of the trump haters you're also arguing with on this thread right now. Im not on the far left or far right, I have many political views in common and completely in contradiction to both of those classical labels.
I'm never going to support a man who disrespects and abuses women for president, ever. And I don't need proof, I'm not the law, I'm an private citizen entitled to use my instincts to judge a candidates suitability. And my instincts tell me the accusations against trump are true. And that's enough for me. So I can't support trump. And I can't support Clinton for political reasons and the long term repercussions for the country from her scotus picks.
I'm just glad that unlike in Australia, America recognizes a right NOT to vote. Regardless, I'm not registered for absentee voting in the state of Florida or Connecticut, where I lived growing up, so ultimately I won't be voting regardless. I just hope if I live long enough to return to America that there's still an America left.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
